


Into Your Hands

by tirsynni



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 08:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a kiss, Zack convinces Cloud to go to Nibelheim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Old gift!fic for [icarusdefiled](http://icarusdefiled.livejournal.com/). Originally posted on my livejournal. Yet another ficlet originally beta'd by artimusdin, with all mistakes remaining mine.

“Hel,” Cloud whispered. “Please.”  
  
He had no idea why he was praying to the icy goddess; still, he was confident that she could hear him over the snores of his bunkmates, even if he could barely hear himself.  
  
“Please,” Cloud repeated, not sure what he could say beyond that.  
  
He didn’t even know why he was upset. The rest of the day had been the same as usual: waking up before dawn, training, classes, more training, and eventually a smidgeon of freedom. He had been too distressed to eat at dinner, and several of his buddies battles had attached themselves to his side after that. They had promised to keep him company until he could go to sleep.  
  
Cloud looked away from his clenched fists to the three young men sprawled around his narrow bed. Allen and Kelen had been smart enough to at least lean against the bed before falling asleep. Cloud gently nudged the third boy with his foot. Peter’s back was going to be hurting in the morning.  
  
“The spirit is willing,” Cloud said tiredly, “but the flesh is weak.”  
  
Cloud shook his head and tried to sleep again. With one last whispered prayer to his all-but-forgotten goddess, he closed his eyes.  
  
When Cloud finally managed to sleep, he dreamed only of blood.  
  
xoxoxox  
  
Zack was still whispering to Sephiroth when Cloud entered the General’s office. Cloud stood at parade rest and waited. Even if they had summoned him, he was still a lowly cadet, among the lowest on the ladder in ShinRa.  
  
 _“…but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience, experience!” President ShinRa had boasted in a speech a year ago. Later, he had told the cadets, patronizing smile fixed on his face, “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.”_  
  
There had been something mocking about it that had chilled Cloud’s heart, but it was nothing compared to the sight of Masamune on Sephiroth’s back now. How often did Sephiroth wear that in his office?  
  
Whatever Zack had been whispering to Sephiroth, Sephiroth seemed to agree. The man nodded and his green eyes caught Cloud’s. Sephiroth smiled warmly at him, and Cloud involuntarily smiled back.  
  
Zack was smiling, too, as he walked around Sephiroth’s desk to stand in front of Cloud. Cloud dropped his formal stance when Zack wrapped his arms around him and drew him close.  
  
“Hey, Cloud,” Zack whispered against his lips, “you were raised in Nibelheim, right?”  
  
xoxoxox  
  
Nibelheim.  
  
Behind his helmet, Cloud prayed to Hel, but despite whatever his mother believed, Cloud felt that Hel had forsaken Nibelheim long ago.  
  
Or maybe She had died there. It seemed like a place even gods could die.  
  
“Are you looking forward to going home, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked quietly, something wistful in his voice. Cloud barely heard him over Zack bouncing around and couldn’t hear Peter at all, who was probably hiding behind his own helmet. He was a little sorry for the guy: it was the first time he had to deal with Zack _and_ Sephiroth.  
  
“Not really, Sir,” Cloud said truthfully. Even two years later, he could still feel the eyes of the townspeople on him, growing from disdainful to mocking when they learned why he was leaving.  
  
 _“Come on, are you going to become a SOLDIER or not? Just tell us!”_  
  
Sephiroth hummed, and Cloud looked up to meet sympathetic eyes. It softened something in Cloud, made him want to share more, but he simply put his head back on his knees.  
  
Cloud didn’t have to look outside to know what the driver was seeing: the cold, desolate Nibel Mountains rising and falling around them in sharp, ragged cuts. The dead path wound through the grey rocks, silver clouds cutting off the sun. A dead path to a dead town.  
  
 _“He doesn’t need to answer. We know the truth. Cloudy wants to play SOLDIER.”_  
  
Hearing their laughter, Cloud closed his eyes.  
  
A dead path to a dead town, leaving behind dead dreams.  
  
xoxoxox  
  
 _ShinRa troops are coming,_ they told her. _They’re coming to check out the reactor._  
  
No one mentioned the glowing eyes that watched them from the dark. No one mentioned how no one left the town anymore except Evelyn Strife, who stared at them with her accusing eyes. No one mentioned how rarely the sun came out anymore, and how the mountain smelled of sulfur and acid and iron.  
  
The people of Nibelheim were good at silence.  
  
But Tifa had heard the whispers she wanted. She waited at the gates, heart pounding.  
  
Her father had watched her leave with dark eyes. _Whore_ , he had said, lips never moving. He knew who she was waiting for.  
  
Tifa didn’t care, though. She still remembered the slight blond boy at the well, the dreams in his eyes giving him an air she had never seen before. Everyone in town knew Cloud was Different; Tifa was the only one who loved him for it.  
  
He had saved her, even if he didn’t know it. She had fallen in with the others in the town, even if it had just been because she didn’t protest their actions. She still considering her silence a sin, and her demons would always haunt her in the form of the scars on her knees.  
  
But Tifa had grown, thanks to that night by the well. And when Cloud came and left for Midgar again, Tifa swore she would join him.  
  
xoxoxox  
  
 _Death is coming. Death is coming._  
  
Evelyn had known. She had always known.  
  
Her eyes had always been open even if everyone else had been content to close theirs. She had noticed when the dark-haired man with the beautiful face (he had smiled at her, she remembered that, had smiled so sweetly even as she could see at least one gun distorting his clothes) had walked into the mansion and never walked out again. She had heard the mournful howls of the wolves dying out as the scents from the mountain grew stronger. She had watched as the amount of stillborns grew, sightless glowing eyes staring at their screaming mothers.  
  
By some miracle, her child had survived. He had been the only child with glowing eyes to survive.  
  
The whispers had begun then.  
  
 _Death, Death, Death, Death…_  
  
Evelyn had always listened, so she heard the wind when it changed.  
  
 _Death has come._  
  
And Sephiroth led his own into Nibelheim.  
  
xoxoxox  
  
Cloud fled the moment Sephiroth released them, and Peter looked around helplessly. The townspeople stared at them with dark, accusing eyes, and he had never felt more aware of his uniform in his life. He wanted to point out all ShinRa had given them, how they should be grateful, but instead Peter slunk toward the inn.  
  
A beautiful young woman stopped him. She smiled hopefully at him, and Peter grinned back. At least someone was nice. “Hi! You wouldn’t happen to know a boy by the name of Cloud Strife, would you? He left from her two years ago to join ShinRa.”  
  
Peter’s smile vanished. “No,” he said shortly. “I don’t know him.” Cloud had already told him how these people hated him. He wasn’t going to make his own situation any worse.  
  
He swallowed hard when her face fell. “Oh. Sorry, then.”  
  
Feeling nauseous, Peter hurried past her to the inn. A dark-haired man called him as he passed: “Hey, ShinRa! You know of a kid named Strife? He should be wearing that uniform, too.”  
  
The man’s tone was mocking, and Peter’s lie was heavy on his tongue. “No, I don’t know him.”  
  
The innkeeper greeted him with a strained smile and a key. “Do you know --”  
  
Peter cursed and backed away. “I don’t know him,” he swore and fled upstairs.  
  
In the distance, a wolf howled. It sent chills up Peter’s spine.  
  
xoxoxox  
  
In the mansion, Cloud dreamed.  
  
He was back outside the reactor, but this time there was no Tifa in sight. It was only him and Sephiroth, an inviting smile on his pale lips like Cloud had never seen before. Everything was dark, thunder rumbling overhead, Nibelheim silent and still under them. Through Nibel’s black trees, glowing eyes watched them.  
  
“Don’t fight me,” Sephiroth said, and his voice was strange, too, soft and deep and smooth. His eyes glowed like the star that leads the sun into the sky. “The world can be ours.”  
  
He stepped closer, and Cloud heard hissing. He looked down and saw sleek, scaled limbs instead of legs. They writhed on the ground, pulling Sephiroth closer to Cloud. Cloud saw no faces, no mouths but the hissing never stopped. Sephiroth’s face tilted with that sweet, dark smile.  
  
“The power to destroy those who wanted to destroy you.” He slithered closer and Cloud couldn’t move. “The ones who didn’t believe you when you dreamed. I believe you, Cloud. I believe in you.”  
  
Sephiroth smiled, and those pale lips offered Cloud everything he had ever wanted: respect, belief.  
  
Sephiroth’s eyes promised even more.  
  
Those smooth, strong tentacles slid up Cloud’s calves. His breath caught. They were on bare skin, glittered scaled pressed against vulnerable flesh. Sephiroth smiled and moved closer. Cloud could taste his breath.  
  
“Everything you’ve ever wanted,” Sephiroth promised, and those smooth limbs snaked up higher, around sensitive knees, brushing against trembling thighs. The sound of hissing grew; Sephiroth’s breath tasted like smoke. “Everything.”  
  
And they snaked up higher.  
  
In the mansion, Zack woke Cloud with a kiss. “Cloud,” he said. “Nibelheim is burning.”  
  
Atop the mountain, Tifa touched Cloud’s face with bloodied fingers and thought, _I believed._  
  
In the reactor, Cloud and Sephiroth fought, and they both fell, one in madness, the other in blood, both in despair.  
  
At the end of a long road, Zack chose to fight even when he knew it meant death. He died with a smile.  
  
And years after Cloud fell, he arose, sword in hand, eyes glowing with the life of the Planet itself.  
  
The End had begun.


End file.
